So we’re trying to fit in a lot of our summer activities into spring since we’ll be in Dublin for most of the summer. Naturally that include a quick trip to Como Zoo. Sadly, the polar bears have been moved to Detroit while their St Paul homes are being refurbished. And then the puffins were asleep. So those are my favorite things at Como – but that was OK.

It was just nice to be outside and we got to see some baby animals. That’s the advantage of going in the spring.

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We did not win any awards through the Pioneer Press contest but today we dropped off our Peeps Dioramas for display at the Artist Mercantile, it’s a cute shop in the Hamm Building in downtown St Paul. We were so excited to have a place for our materpieces!

Plus I overheard another shopper say nice things about our work!

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Yesterday we went to the annual egg hunt on Princeton (the block next to ours). It’s always fun. The kids get to hunt for Easter Eggs; the adults take pictures and eat donuts. Often – very ofte – the Easter Bunny makes and appearance too.

The nice other nice thing is that we get to see each other. Three seasons we’re a neighborhood that hangs outside together but after a long winter it’s fun to see how tall everyone has become.

After the egg hunt we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Minneapolis Community College. I hadn’t been on campus since I taught there 10+ years ago. So that was fun. They had a smart deal where tickets were free but they asked you to bring in a nonperishable food product. So it was a nice way to let a bunch of people see a free show and collect food for an area food shelf.

The show was very good. Alice was good – but the caterpillar and Cheshire cat were our favorites. I don’t know that Aine followed everything that happened – but then again I’m not always sure that I follow everything with Lewis Carroll either. It’s probably a good sign if you don’t get it all.

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Didn’t have the camera the other night but we went to the Cabooze to the see English Beat. It was fun. The music is always fun – really I think everyone knows every song by the English Beat – and they are all very danceable. They had said that they started 30 years ago!

It was also some of the best crowd-watching I’ve seen for a while.

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Last weekend I had an unconference in Duluth. I wrote a ton about the unconference itself on the Blandin on Broadband blog (if you’re interested). The super quick take is that a group of folks who use web 2.0 tools (especially in rural Minnesota) all got together to talk about why and how we use those tools. It was fun.

The family came to Duluth with me and we stayed an extra day for a vacation. Here are some of the highlights:

We stayed at the Inn on Lake Superior. They have s’mores every night at 8:00. Who doesn’t love that?

We walked up to Fitger’s for dinner on Saturday night. We were led by Mary M and her family from Grand Rapids – so they knew the ropes. The food was good and the beer is locally brewed. The best part was that it was a nice walk up the boardwalk to get there.

You can see some picture of the girls walking out to some structure in Lake Superior. It was an easy walk out on the ice on Friday night – by Monday I think you’d have to swim out there. So we were there at a perfect time to see how the ice goes out.

The hotel had two pools. There was an outdoor pool on the roof, which is open in all seasons. It’s nice and warm like a hot tub. We were there on a sunny day so it didn’t feel too cold making the long walk from the door to the pool – even though it was probably about freezing outside.

The second pool was a more regular pool inside – but there was a Jacuzzi there too. So that was fun for a dip too.

The girls tracked down the ugliest animal/amphibian I have ever seen in a local book store (Northern Lights Books). It was a zombie frog. It floated at the top of the fish tank like it was dead. And it was so pale and white – and that’s coming from a family that understands pale and white! Apparently it’s nocturnal. We did see it dive to the bottom – where it somehow looked even uglier than before.

We saw a huge ship leaving the harbor – which is particularly cool to see when there’s still so much ice on the lake.

We had brunch at a place (Hell’s Kitchen) where the staff wears their pajamas.

We had two TVs in the hotel room and we all got to watch as much cable as we wanted.

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I didn’t even take her to get it fixed this time. She and I were fighting. I think I told her that I would not talk to her until she returned something she had taken. Then I went back to work and she went into her room.

Yes, it was a little quiet. And yes, I got a lot of work done in that hour. Then she emerged with her new hat and her new haircut. I don’t know which came first. She wears the hat almost all of the time now.

I’m also including a load of pictures that I found on my camera. That’s another thing she does to pass the time – takes load of picture of herself. Kindergarten cannot start soon enough for either of us.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Our Aunt Mary works for the Sisters of St Joseph. We used to live across the street from their offices. And we had some St Joseph Worked live in our house last year when we were in Ireland. So the girls were interested in learning more about them.

Kate agreed to interview Sr. Irene at the CSJs; Lily was camera girl. We all worked on the questions we wanted to ask.